Boxers and Ballerinas is about four young people forever united by their cultural heritage, and forever divided by 90 miles of water and over 40 years of political conflict. The documentary traces the lives of a boxer and ... more &raquoa ballerina in Miami, Florida, and a boxer and a ballerina in Havana, Cuba: their triumphs and failures, their power and powerlessness, and the singular intensity and violence of being young. Boxers and Ballerinas cuts through the romantic mystery of Cuba, the neon stereotype of Miami, and the political noise of US-Cuba relations to the sweat, sex, grace and aggression of winning the fight, nailing the pirouette, and chasing the dream until the body gives in. It is a film about young people by young people.&laquo less

Movie Reviews

Equally Compelling: Visually & Narratively

Travis Jones | Lexington, KY | 08/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had the good fortune fortune of attending an early screening of Boxers & Ballerinas at the Director's Guild of America in which the filmmakers were present. So often documentaries are able to stumble upon intriguing situations yet lack a visual level of expression worthy of intrigue. This is NOT one of those films.As important a story being told, here is one filmmaker's extraordinarily creative vision for all of us to either sit back and enjoy or sit closer and try to figure out how he did it! As gifted a storyteller as Cahill "appears" to be, what's most apparent is the lack of calling attention to itself (regarding the visual effects) and instead they are only used as necessary parts to a greater whole. And for me, that whole was to better understand the lives of others' in which I'd never contemplated before, and I'm extremely thankful for the opportunity."